Terror, Guts, and a bit of wisdom

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

I spoke with a woman last week who has goal to do one thing each day that scares her. At first I laughed because - who would do that?? But I soon realized what a wise goal that is. When we are uncomfortable, we are growing. Instead of just reacting to life, she seeks out these opportunities for growth. Brilliant.

So, with Halloween less than a week away, I have decided to set the same goal. Bring on the terror! Haha. Okay, terror sounds a little over zealous...and masochistic...and I am sure I would set the goal even if Halloween wasn't less than a week away. But you get my point. It is so easy to just sit back and let life happen. I am going to be more willing to get out of my comfort zone and do things that require guts (again with the Halloween lingo! sorry, couldn't resist).

I am sure many of you have already committed to doing this in your own lives. I may very well be the last one to jump on this wagon, but just in case there are others of you out there who hate life's haunted houses, join me...if you dare! Mwa ha ha ha ha.




*for those of you who have not yet witnessed how truly dorky I am, this should bring you "up to speed" pretty quick :) Welcome.

Time's a-wastin'

Okay, so it's been a couple of months since I started this blog and I've been meaning to go back over the past year and document all of the great things that have happened but time keeps going by and I keep not doing it, so I'm just going to post about life from now forward, and then if I have time I'll back-date some posts. Savvy? Great.

Here's what's going on in our lives right now. Chris and I are both working full-time - Chris at Tahitian Noni in their Quality Assurance/Control department, and I'm working from home as the Customer Support manager for Podango, and am also taking on some projects that I'll talk more about later I'm sure. As for the little B, he is becoming quite the character! He walks around the house and jabbers...it sounds kind of like Chinese...he loves balloons, Baby Einstein, balls, his puppy blanket, and his new Curious George (thanks, Grandma!)

We've put our home on the market in hopes of selling it so that Chris can go to law school next fall in...drumroll, please...Grand Forks, North Dakota! That's right. We're actually really excited, and I feel ready for a new adventure. I get antsy after a while...I guess that comes with moving about every 2 years growing up. I'll be sure to keep you updated on any action with our house.

So we're basically just hanging out, loving life, and getting ready for whatever's next!

Here are a few fun photos Chris took with his new camera!This is my favorite photo of Brayden. Such a sweet boy.

Already a tease like his dad...

Bubbles!

Super B!

Highlights of our Past Year (or so) - BRAYDEN ARRIVES!

My pregnancy with Brayden went very smoothly-- just looooooooong. My "due date" was August 25th, but B decided to hang around the womb as long as possible. Chris started asking if I was a "dud." I really did feel like a dud...a firework that was supposed to go off at a certain time, and didn't. My doctor had a vacation scheduled the week after my due date, so I couldn't be induced until almost 2 WEEKS after August 25th. Looking back, 2 weeks isn't a big deal (okay it still kind of is, but not nearly as bad as it felt then), but for an expectant mother, it was an eternity. Chris and I tried pretty much everything we heard of to try and move things along...spicy food, walks, and all that good stuff. I was even seen by neighbors bouncing around the bumpy yard on the riding lawn mower. Didn't do a thing except get a lot of laughs out of passers by. Doh. Brayden wanted all the baking time he could get. I'm glad now...it made him extra sweet (awwww cheesy!!).

September 6th was the big day we had scheduled if the B decided not to come on his own. We were scheduled to go in at 7 am that morning, but I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Kind of a big event that was coming. I took a shower and started feeling contractions. By the time it was time to go to the hospital I was having some pretty good ones. Turns out it was a really good thing because it helped things go much smoother with the petocin.

We were escorted to the delivery room and I remember looking at the delivery bed, the tray of I.V. stuff, the scale, and the INCUBATOR (where OUR baby was going to be!) in terror. I was so nervous. Chris, of course, was enjoying every second of my anxiety. He just laughed. Punk. I got the last laugh though because he ended up having to lie on the floor and sip juice after seeing the nurse place my I.V. HA!

Long story short, I got my epidural when the contractions were getting stronger, then we watched Seinfeld episodes for a while and I fell asleep. Pretty soon our cute nurse (Carol was awesome!) came in and said it was pushing time. I pushed for about an hour and a half, and then our baby boy was here! He was 8 pounds and 10 ounces (ya that extra baking time did him good!), and was 19 inches long. It was amazing to finally meet the little guy who had been wiggling around inside me for so long. I felt so much love for Chris and for our new baby boy, and I felt so humbled and grateful that everything went so smoothly. It was a great day.

Highlights of our Past Year (or so) - The Big News!

2007 was an exciting year for us! Actually I'll go back a couple weeks before 2007 to December 22nd when I found out that we were expecting our first baby. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was home alone. I can't explain the excitement I felt! I was running around the house screaming, crying, laughing, jumping up and down (repeated a few more times after that).

I decided that it would be super fun to surprise Chris with the news on Christmas day. Let's just say that those were the 3 LONGEST days of my life!!! I gained an appreciation for Mary where the scriptures say "she kept these things and held them in her heart." I ironed on the words "I love my Dad" onto a tee shirt on a teddy bear and wrapped it up. It was torture seeing that box just sit there! Multiple times I asked Chris if he wanted to open one present before Christmas :). He said, "No way! That's cheating!" Rrrr.

Christmas morning FINALLY came, and we handed each other presents to open. My stomach felt tighter and tighter the fewer packages there were under the tree. Finally all of the presents were gone, except for the silver one with a purple bow...

His face when he opened the present was PRICELESS! I think it took a few seconds to really register, but when it did he was so excited! We hugged and went through the whole roller coaster of emotions again. It was a great Christmas. :)